1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to robots characterized by their ability to walk while maintaining their balance, and, more particularly, to toy robots that are capable of maintaining balance while walking, turning and running in a race-type setting on level ground and over a ramp or small obstacles.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well-known in the art, while efforts have been directed towards simulated walking and/or turning, the problem of balance has apparently been so resistant to solution that most robots available in the market place today employ wheels and/or continuously driven tracks to enable the robot to move over the ground by rolling or gliding.
Nevertheless, while most robots available in the marketplace today employ wheels and/or tracks to permit movement over the ground, the related art is replete with long-standing efforts to provide a robot capable of walking. As evidence of this fact, attention is directed to U.S. Pat. No. 882,403, issued in 1908 in the name of Mikolsek, wherein a walking toy biped is disclosed in which the toy's left and right legs are alternately raised and lowered by a crank assembly; and, in order to maintain the toy's balance, a liquid-filled weight is coupled to the crank assembly for shifting the toy's center of gravity laterally to the left or to the right over the ground engaged supporting leg.
In 1958, U.S. Pat. No. 2,827,735, issued in the name of H. E. Grimm, Jr., disclosed a six-legged animal wherein two legs on one side of the toy were coupled to, and driven by, the same mechanism as was coupled to, and which drove, one leg on the opposite side of the toy so as to maintain the toy's balance.
More recently, U.S. Pat. No. 3,660,931, issued in the name of Gardel et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,437, issued in the name of Jameson, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,200, issued in the name of Kajita, presumably disclose state-of-the-art robotic technologies. In the Gardel reference, issued in 1972, a walking doll is disclosed having legs mounted at an angle to the axis of the doll's torso so that as the legs move relative to the body, the body tilts to shift the center of gravity of the doll over the leg planted on the floor. In the Jameson reference, issued in 1982, the legs of the toy are crank-operated and a gyroscope is provided to prevent rotation and maintain stability. The Kajita reference, which issued in 1989, discloses a walking robot wherein the lengths of the robot's legs and the angles between each foot and leg are continuously adjusted so as to maintain the robot's center of gravity within the support area defined by the robot's footprint.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,493, issued in 1992 in the name of Morgrey, discloses a robot which simulates walking similar to that of a human being, wherein the robot alternately lifts its left and right leg/foot assemblies off the ground and strides forward with the raised leg/foot assembly while the robot's weight is supported and balanced by the leg/foot assembly that is planted on the ground.
However, notwithstanding the state-of-the-art as exemplified by the foregoing patents, no known related art robot exists, either in patented or published art, or in the form of a commercially available robot, wherein the robot is capable of maintaining balance while walking, turning and running in a race-type setting on level ground and over a ramp or small obstacles.
Consequently, a need has been felt for providing a robot that is economically feasible to manufacture, wherein the robot is capable of maintaining balance while walking, turning and running in a race-type setting on level ground and over a ramp or small obstacles.